tutor learning pathway-January 2017
evaluation summary
Beware!! This page is heavy on text.
This record of a design evaluation is included on my website to help Diploma Apprentices who are developing their own 'action learning pathways'.
Background
My original tutor pathway was developed in December 2012, following on immediately from my registration level tutor training. When I created the design, I anticipated some major changes in my life and tried to develop a design that could 'flex' with these changes.
Now is a good time to reflect on my pathway so far and to re-evaluate it, as the anticipated major changes have come to fruition. In June 2014, my husband and I sold our home in North Yorkshire and headed off travelling in our converted transit van, armed with our visions and dreams and a weighted criteria list for a property that would give us potential to achieve them.
In January 2015, we completed the purchase of an old farmhouse, some outbuildings and a hectare of land in South West France. We are now formally French residents and this has become our full-time permanent base.
In summer 2016, the U.K. voted to leave the E.U. This has presented new challenges and uncertainties.
I based my reflections on my pathway around the four questions: What's going well? What are the challenges? What are your long term visions and goals? What are your next achievable steps? A separate, more detailed document is available, although the salient points have been included in this design process revision.
Survey
The aims at this stage of the process were as follows:
To reflect on the yield obtained from tutoring services to date and to decide whether it is appropriate to continue and if so...
Revisit the skills, knowledge and experience required to be an effective tutor, to establish a base map of the needs.
Identify and record the skills, knowledge and experience that I have at this point, to create a further base map and identify the main gaps.
Determine the available resources for the pathway, to specifically include time and money.
Take a snap shot of my Zone 00 at this point in time, to identify any potential limiting factors or conflicts that need to be considered in the process.
The Needs
The following approach was taken in order to gain a fuller understanding of the requirements of a tutor:
Reviewing the revised Tutor Manual for the system 5.2. Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design
Reviewing my original design process document and the background analysis
Meeting with our Accountant in France to establish the requirements for setting up and running a business here and to better forecast the potential impacts of the Brexit vote on ex-pats
Additionally, a tutor on the French system and his family kindly welcomed us into their home and their lives and helped us to explore aspects relating to engagement with the French Permaculture Network.
My Current Skills Base Map
Having established what I felt to be the requirements, I then considered what I had to offer the role at this point and recorded this in the form of comments on a spreadsheet.
Available Resources
Time- At present, I am able to commit the following time to my tutor pathway and providing support to Apprentices:
Days when I am unable to work outside on the land or on our other projects. This is estimated as 2 days per week between November-March and 1 day per week from April-October.
I can provide tutorials to Apprentices any weekday evening and can generally be flexible at other times.
I can dedicate time to deliver Permaculture courses at other sites, provided that I am remunerated financially (Teaching Pathway)
Financial- I have paid for my complete assessment of practice in advance and so my remaining costs are associated with attendance at gatherings and ongoing training events. I need to get to the position where my income from tutoring at least covers these costs, as the current position is unsustainable. It is likely that tutor training events in the future will also be offered over Skype, making tutoring a more viable option for me longer term.
Other- I have a vehicle and I can travel to local Apprentices/teaching sites in South West France, provided that my costs are met and that I am able to obtain some income as a yield for the time and energy involved.
I have a good internet connection and so can offer tutorials via telephone of Skype or at Permaculture events that I attend in the U.K.
Once we are a little further into our project in France, I will be able to offer tutorials on site with the potential for some basic overnight accommodation. This can be achieved now during the summer months, but we would incur additional insurance costs.
My Zone 00 Base Map
In March 2015, I considered my Zone 00 in terms of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, as I felt this could serve multiple functions. For example, it would be a useful refresher from my PTLLS training, it would remind me to think of myself as a learner and it would help to prepare me for focusing on the needs of Apprentices. I have revisited the output again at this evaluation point and feel that it still stands.
Visions and Dreams
As part of this re-evaluation, I looked back on the wild dreaming outputs that we created as a couple in 2012 and considered to what extent each of our wishes had been satisfied. Out of the 15 original wishes, 6 have now been fulfilled, 8 have been partially achieved and our land projects will ensure the achievement of the one remaining. So, it feels like we are on track!
How Ethics Underpin My Visions and Dreams
Although I would usually refer to ethics at a later stage in the design process, in this case I feel that it is appropriate to mention them now. This is because they are intertwined with our visions and dreams.
Earth Care
The goal is to be almost self-sufficient for food, achieving zero food miles for all but grain crops and so reducing my own impact on the planet in this way. Ultimately, I would like to develop my place into a demonstration site that inspires others to take similar steps, so extending the reach of my impact beyond that which is personally possible.
My tutor pathway represents an income stream which can largely be achieved by working from home, again reducing my day to day travel impacts and providing me with the opportunity to spend time managing our land and to achieve the self-sufficiency goals.
People Care
From 2012-2014, I was in a situation where I was balancing three jobs to try to generate enough income to hold onto our home and vehicle in the U.K. I worked full-time in a data role in York from Monday to Friday, worked on my diploma and tutor pathway from 5.30am to 7.30am each day and worked on Permaculture design and organic gardening projects at the weekend. I had hoped that as my earnings from being a tutor developed, I would be able to lessen this burden in some way. Things did not happen as I hoped and needed and so it was necessary to go back to our 'wild dreaming' again and create a new vision for the future. We sold our house in the U.K. and left to travel around Europe in our van, looking for a new base that met the detailed criteria that we had laid out. We found a small farm in South West France, which gives us potential to achieve our visions and also reduced my earning pressure for the first two years.
This record of a design evaluation is included on my website to help Diploma Apprentices who are developing their own 'action learning pathways'.
Background
My original tutor pathway was developed in December 2012, following on immediately from my registration level tutor training. When I created the design, I anticipated some major changes in my life and tried to develop a design that could 'flex' with these changes.
Now is a good time to reflect on my pathway so far and to re-evaluate it, as the anticipated major changes have come to fruition. In June 2014, my husband and I sold our home in North Yorkshire and headed off travelling in our converted transit van, armed with our visions and dreams and a weighted criteria list for a property that would give us potential to achieve them.
In January 2015, we completed the purchase of an old farmhouse, some outbuildings and a hectare of land in South West France. We are now formally French residents and this has become our full-time permanent base.
In summer 2016, the U.K. voted to leave the E.U. This has presented new challenges and uncertainties.
I based my reflections on my pathway around the four questions: What's going well? What are the challenges? What are your long term visions and goals? What are your next achievable steps? A separate, more detailed document is available, although the salient points have been included in this design process revision.
Survey
The aims at this stage of the process were as follows:
To reflect on the yield obtained from tutoring services to date and to decide whether it is appropriate to continue and if so...
Revisit the skills, knowledge and experience required to be an effective tutor, to establish a base map of the needs.
Identify and record the skills, knowledge and experience that I have at this point, to create a further base map and identify the main gaps.
Determine the available resources for the pathway, to specifically include time and money.
Take a snap shot of my Zone 00 at this point in time, to identify any potential limiting factors or conflicts that need to be considered in the process.
The Needs
The following approach was taken in order to gain a fuller understanding of the requirements of a tutor:
Reviewing the revised Tutor Manual for the system 5.2. Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design
Reviewing my original design process document and the background analysis
Meeting with our Accountant in France to establish the requirements for setting up and running a business here and to better forecast the potential impacts of the Brexit vote on ex-pats
Additionally, a tutor on the French system and his family kindly welcomed us into their home and their lives and helped us to explore aspects relating to engagement with the French Permaculture Network.
My Current Skills Base Map
Having established what I felt to be the requirements, I then considered what I had to offer the role at this point and recorded this in the form of comments on a spreadsheet.
Available Resources
Time- At present, I am able to commit the following time to my tutor pathway and providing support to Apprentices:
Days when I am unable to work outside on the land or on our other projects. This is estimated as 2 days per week between November-March and 1 day per week from April-October.
I can provide tutorials to Apprentices any weekday evening and can generally be flexible at other times.
I can dedicate time to deliver Permaculture courses at other sites, provided that I am remunerated financially (Teaching Pathway)
Financial- I have paid for my complete assessment of practice in advance and so my remaining costs are associated with attendance at gatherings and ongoing training events. I need to get to the position where my income from tutoring at least covers these costs, as the current position is unsustainable. It is likely that tutor training events in the future will also be offered over Skype, making tutoring a more viable option for me longer term.
Other- I have a vehicle and I can travel to local Apprentices/teaching sites in South West France, provided that my costs are met and that I am able to obtain some income as a yield for the time and energy involved.
I have a good internet connection and so can offer tutorials via telephone of Skype or at Permaculture events that I attend in the U.K.
Once we are a little further into our project in France, I will be able to offer tutorials on site with the potential for some basic overnight accommodation. This can be achieved now during the summer months, but we would incur additional insurance costs.
My Zone 00 Base Map
In March 2015, I considered my Zone 00 in terms of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, as I felt this could serve multiple functions. For example, it would be a useful refresher from my PTLLS training, it would remind me to think of myself as a learner and it would help to prepare me for focusing on the needs of Apprentices. I have revisited the output again at this evaluation point and feel that it still stands.
Visions and Dreams
As part of this re-evaluation, I looked back on the wild dreaming outputs that we created as a couple in 2012 and considered to what extent each of our wishes had been satisfied. Out of the 15 original wishes, 6 have now been fulfilled, 8 have been partially achieved and our land projects will ensure the achievement of the one remaining. So, it feels like we are on track!
How Ethics Underpin My Visions and Dreams
Although I would usually refer to ethics at a later stage in the design process, in this case I feel that it is appropriate to mention them now. This is because they are intertwined with our visions and dreams.
Earth Care
The goal is to be almost self-sufficient for food, achieving zero food miles for all but grain crops and so reducing my own impact on the planet in this way. Ultimately, I would like to develop my place into a demonstration site that inspires others to take similar steps, so extending the reach of my impact beyond that which is personally possible.
My tutor pathway represents an income stream which can largely be achieved by working from home, again reducing my day to day travel impacts and providing me with the opportunity to spend time managing our land and to achieve the self-sufficiency goals.
People Care
From 2012-2014, I was in a situation where I was balancing three jobs to try to generate enough income to hold onto our home and vehicle in the U.K. I worked full-time in a data role in York from Monday to Friday, worked on my diploma and tutor pathway from 5.30am to 7.30am each day and worked on Permaculture design and organic gardening projects at the weekend. I had hoped that as my earnings from being a tutor developed, I would be able to lessen this burden in some way. Things did not happen as I hoped and needed and so it was necessary to go back to our 'wild dreaming' again and create a new vision for the future. We sold our house in the U.K. and left to travel around Europe in our van, looking for a new base that met the detailed criteria that we had laid out. We found a small farm in South West France, which gives us potential to achieve our visions and also reduced my earning pressure for the first two years.
Fair Shares
The Permaculture Association (GB) sets a fee for diploma tutorials. I will adopt and publish this rate on my website. My rate for independent activities will be euros37,50 per hour and my rates for teaching will be negotiated with the site owner/client in advance.
I am prepared to enter into the occasional barter arrangement, but this has to be the exception rather than the rule to prevent my role as a tutor from becoming unsustainable. I offer small amounts of support via email in between tutorials on the understanding that I will suggest a tutorial if the demands become too great.
The Permaculture Association (GB) sets a fee for diploma tutorials. I will adopt and publish this rate on my website. My rate for independent activities will be euros37,50 per hour and my rates for teaching will be negotiated with the site owner/client in advance.
I am prepared to enter into the occasional barter arrangement, but this has to be the exception rather than the rule to prevent my role as a tutor from becoming unsustainable. I offer small amounts of support via email in between tutorials on the understanding that I will suggest a tutorial if the demands become too great.
Tutor Related Goals
Where do I want to be in 2 years' time?
As part of the survey stage, I have considered myself as the client and what I need to achieve as a tutor over the next two years. This will be an important evaluation point in the future, as it is when I will probably be financially assessed by the authorities in France. If I have not achieved the goals below, then I may be required to leave France and treat our farm as a 'holiday home.' This does not bear thinking about.
In 2 years' time, I need to have:
Been completely signed off as an Assessment Level Tutor
Completed and launched my website(s), to include some example designs
20+ Apprentices
Alternative additional income from Permaculture and TEFL teaching and probably also a further part-time job in order to achieve the euro12000 threshold in order to remain in France.
Speak French at level B2 (fluent, foundation degree level)
Engaged more fully with the Permaculture Network in France
Where do I want to be in 2 years' time?
As part of the survey stage, I have considered myself as the client and what I need to achieve as a tutor over the next two years. This will be an important evaluation point in the future, as it is when I will probably be financially assessed by the authorities in France. If I have not achieved the goals below, then I may be required to leave France and treat our farm as a 'holiday home.' This does not bear thinking about.
In 2 years' time, I need to have:
Been completely signed off as an Assessment Level Tutor
Completed and launched my website(s), to include some example designs
20+ Apprentices
Alternative additional income from Permaculture and TEFL teaching and probably also a further part-time job in order to achieve the euro12000 threshold in order to remain in France.
Speak French at level B2 (fluent, foundation degree level)
Engaged more fully with the Permaculture Network in France
Analysis
Having developed base maps for the requirements of a tutor and my current skills, I analysed this position in the following way:
-Assigned a score to each of the required attributes based on my commentary
-Calculated my percentage achievement for each of the attribute types at this moment in time.
This is something that I will be able to repeat at various evaluation points throughout my pathway to measure my learning gain. The results for March 2015 and January 2017 are shown below for comparison purposes:
Having developed base maps for the requirements of a tutor and my current skills, I analysed this position in the following way:
-Assigned a score to each of the required attributes based on my commentary
-Calculated my percentage achievement for each of the attribute types at this moment in time.
This is something that I will be able to repeat at various evaluation points throughout my pathway to measure my learning gain. The results for March 2015 and January 2017 are shown below for comparison purposes:
This clearly shows some development in the areas of 'Practice Requirements,' 'Experience,' and 'Knowledge.' the scoring process is a little subjective. However, this is the basis on which I have assigned the scores:
Skills
I bring with me to the role the skills and expertise that I have gained throughout my working life.
I worked for two years as a Training Manager in a commercial environment. I received 'train the trainer' coaching, wrote and delivered training courses and also mentored new staff members throughout their first year in the business. This is how I began to develop my facilitation skills. These were further refined during 20 years of commercial management.
I worked as a volunteer neighbour dispute mediator for two years, as a complementary activity in support of my counselling qualifications. This helped me to develop my active listening and solutioning skills.
I have worked as a senior manager for a global company, with responsibility for significant operational and capital budgets, where I used a variety of project management tools.
I have worked as a lecturer and course manager for Horticulture. This included designing assignments and assessing learner submissions. I have some experience of TEFL teaching in France.
Experience
Although the experience referred to in 'skills' above is relevant to my role as a tutor, I have applied a relatively low score here. This is because I have comparatively limited hours of experience as a Permaculture tutor and feel that I will always have more to learn.
Knowledge
This is very subjective and I could possible score myself differently on different days. Whenever I encounter someone new, or read a new book in the world of Permaculture, I am overawed and inspired by their knowledge, experience, enthusiasm, energy and achievements. The more I learn, the more I realise I have left to learn. (I am consciously incompetent).
Qualifications
My diploma has been accredited, I have a PTLLS qualification, some counselling and horticultural qualifications and a TEFL qualification. This is technically 'enough' to be a tutor. However, I would like to expand on this in the future, maybe by doing a degree in a related subject. I know that CTLLS may be an option for tutors in the future. I'm not sure at this stage whether I want to do this or not, especially as it seems unlikely that the qualification will be recognised in France post-Brexit.
Practice Requirements
So far, my pathway has been 'signed-off' and I have been successfully assessed conducting induction, personal tutorial, design support tutorial and first portfolio assessment events. I have attended registration level training, assessment level training (twice), two diploma gatherings and two continuing professional development (CPD) events.
I considered the needs that I had identified at the survey stage in terms of 'Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.' I considered to what degree I felt I was fulfilling my own criteria at this point in time and applied a numeric indicator to this, so that I would be able to easily measure and evaluate progress throughout the course of my pathway. My scores (out of a maximum of 10) are depicted in the graphs below. I have included the results for both March 2015 and January 2017 for comparison purposes. The results are very much the same, but the underlying reasons differ.
In January 2015, we relocated to France, where we have just started work on the renovation of an old farmhouse and a hectare of land. Living conditions are less challenging now than in March 2015, we have installed wood fired central heating and have had an electrical re-wire. However, there is still a huge amount of cosmetic work to be done and we realise that we must wait for another five years before we can progress with this. This has influenced my current 'physiological' score.
We have left family and friends behind in the U.K. and are still at an early stage of integration into our new community. My role has also changed from being the breadwinner to having little day to day income. I have just set up a French business and am positive about this. However, this is balanced by post-Brexit uncertainty. Therefore, my overall safety/security score remains about the same.
When I completed my original pathway, I assigned myself a low score under 'Recognition.' This was because a felt demoralised after my diploma feedback. I now realise that my work was of a high standard and I have had plenty of positive feedback since.
Design
There are a number of mandatory elements to the tutor pathway. Some of these need to be satisfied in order and others do not. Therefore, originally I felt that 'Random Assembly' would be a useful design tool to help to connect and arrange these elements in a logical way before embarking on the initial pathway design. As I am now most of the way through the mandatory elements, I do not feel that I need to repeat this exercise at this evaluation point. However, I do need to link my tutor pathway with other connected activity streams, as there are some inter-dependencies and also the different activity streams support each other. I see the separate streams as:
- My tutor learning pathway
- My permaculture ambassador activities
-My other writing and publication activities
-Making permaculture connections in France
-My design projects: land based; livelihood; social integration; health and well-being; social integration
These various streams work together in a self-strengthening web in the following ways:
There are a number of mandatory elements to the tutor pathway. Some of these need to be satisfied in order and others do not. Therefore, originally I felt that 'Random Assembly' would be a useful design tool to help to connect and arrange these elements in a logical way before embarking on the initial pathway design. As I am now most of the way through the mandatory elements, I do not feel that I need to repeat this exercise at this evaluation point. However, I do need to link my tutor pathway with other connected activity streams, as there are some inter-dependencies and also the different activity streams support each other. I see the separate streams as:
- My tutor learning pathway
- My permaculture ambassador activities
-My other writing and publication activities
-Making permaculture connections in France
-My design projects: land based; livelihood; social integration; health and well-being; social integration
These various streams work together in a self-strengthening web in the following ways:
I then began to develop the design for my 'multi-stranded' tutor pathway, nested within the wider context of other aspects in my life. This is summarised in the illustration below:
The three-monthly markers create a time line and also represent cross-strand evaluation points.
Permaculture Principles
This is how I have applied Permaculture principles to the design:
Important functions should be supported by many elements
The key functions for this design have been defined as: income generation; food production; symmetry; personal learning and development. Each activity stream in the design supports multiple key functions.
Perennial systems/establish low maintenance systems
The inclusion of a publications activity stream is an example of something that I create once, yet provides a yield on an ongoing basis with minimum further intervention.
Integrate, don't segregate
I am working on a personal 'social integration' design following my relocation to France. This includes activities such as participating in a conversation café; volunteering; developing my language skills and participating in commune events. Networking activities are included in the design as an element and my tutor guild is also key to my learning and development as a tutor.
Relative location
It is one of my visions that my work and home life cease to be distinct from one another. As I achieve a 'right livelihood' situation, then the idea is that I will be generating a sustainable level of income from doing something that I enjoy and feel naturally driven to do. My tutor pathway design is about enabling me to do this whilst working from home. Home is also the base site for my current design projects.
Implementation
The tutor pathway design includes a time line and relevant activities for each strand are arranged in a logical order.
There are some risks and dependencies that may make it necessary to tweak the time lines, for example:
- I am unable to predict when I will connect with additional Apprentices
- I am unable to predict the availability of shadowing opportunities
However, the implementation approach provides me with opportunities to influence this, through publications, networking and so forth.
Maintenance
There are a number of actions that I must perform to maintain progress on my pathway. Those in the next year are included on the time line and essentially comprise of attending CPD training either in person or over Skype.
Additionally though, I see ongoing engagement with my tutor guild as key to my development and learning as a tutor and also for my ongoing connectedness with Permaculture in the U.K.
Evaluation
The pre-design analysis has been developed to be used at various stages as an evaluation tool. This narrative represents the output of one such evaluation point. The next interim evaluation point has been set as May 2017.
It is easy to measure the learning gain from my tutor pathway by re-scoring myself against the skills, knowledge, experience, practice requirements and qualifications attribute types. This analysis will generate a new graph for direct comparison with the start point version featured earlier.
I will also be able to measure the changes in my Zone 00 by re-scoring the 'Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs' model and comparing my fulfilment levels.
I will be able to measure progress along my pathway by ticking all the elements that have been achieved and re-evaluating at the three-monthly marker points. I update my financial records at the end of each month.
Tweaking
My tutor pathway has developed as one of multiple time lines. Things will happen on the other strands that will create tension at certain times, but will support more support later as a result.